Hanging on in here

Well despite all the problems I am still hanging in here. Tim is currently in Exeter desperately trying to secure a 3 month contract and I remain in Galicia keeping the home fires burning after cutting the wood first of course.

It is not how we wanted it to be but it will hopefully help us to survive a bit longer. Spring is springing here, all I can hear are woodpeckers drumming away, the birds are singing lustily and my peas are starting to emerge. This winter has been very cold and frosty but NO real rain to speak of. Our seasonal stream has dried up already, none of the grass is growing and the newspapers are full of local farmers spending fortunes on dry food for their cattle.

We hoped for rain yesterday but after thunder and lighting no rain actually fell and today is bright and sunny with a clear sky again. After last years drought people will be in real trouble, I am reluctant to plant too much because I will have to water it by lugging buckets of water about. The dry weather hasn't stopped our drake and cockerel from pestering their ladies though. Eggs are in abundance and I had 3 chicks hatch on Valentines Day which are still alive despite the best efforts of their mother, who in a frenzy of scratching likes to bury their food and water as soon as they are put down. I am surprised they haven't starved to death, but their is still time I suppose.

Finally I couldn't do all of this without the support of all of my friends out here. A cup of tea is always available in any one of a dozen houses if I wanted it. The sense of community is alive and well in Galicia and long may it stay that way.

Yet another new beginning

One thing you can't stop is the wheel of life from turning. After a year living in paradise it looks like Tim and I will have to return to the UK to earn some money. When we came out here Tim had a permanent job with remote working but after it stopped he has been struggling to get another job from here.
Rather than spend lots of time apart we are hoping to go back to the UK together so we can maintain our married status and I can keep my feet warm while we try to get some bills paid.

The good news is that we are not the people we were when we came here. Galicia has shown us life as we want it to be. It is achingly beautiful, the people are amazingly generous with their time and indeed with anything they can give. We have raised our own pigs, grown vegetables, kept poultry and performed so many tasks that would have stumped us in our previous life. We have drunk wine, spent time with very good friends, had more than one night singling along to Tims guitar playing, in other words we have really LIVED LIFE.

I have spent precious mornings watching the sun rise over our valley (I never had time to do this in the UK) and precious memories of the glorious summer nights, when we rolled in merrily from a party late at night and then sat on our patio and just gazed awestruck at the clearest stars I have ever seen. You can see the milky way from our patio and more stars than you can imagine. So....I have had a privileged year and it has made us both doubly determined to get back here by hook or by crook as soon as we can sustain it.

In the mean time... does anyone know any house sitters????

New beginnings... again

This time of year is very exciting. A whole new year to enjoy. Tim and I have just finished fencing our first bit of veggie patch with supplies paid for by my mother as a Christmas gift (thanks Mum). As it was our first bit of cultivated ground we put in it all of the fruit bushes we had bought with us from the UK, most of which seem to have survived. It is therefore going to be the official soft fruit area which we hope to net this year. Last year the birds cleared all of the currents in one morning. A massive flock descended like a plague of locusts. We did get some nice strawberries though and a handful of raspberries (the ones the ducks didn't get). We also lifted the huge piece of black plastic and moved it on a bit and I now have a beautiful area of dead grass for this years proper veggie patch. Turning the thin soil over is a complete joy as the thick former turf parts like butter. As I found out last year, trying to dig through the living turf was a nightmare. Even using the local satcha (mattock) I struggled.

I now find I am behaving like a miser, going though my tub of veg seed packets whilst fantasising about the huge luscious crops I will grow in my new veg patch. Of course the reality is unlikely to match the fantasy (like so much in life) but it is the new year and the time for dreaming of the good year to come.